REINVENTING COCHIN

Cochin is a fast developing commercial and tourist destination. But the city has its own problems – traffic jams, garbage strewn over the place, open drains, potholes, narrow roads and so on. What is it that can be done to make it a much better place to live? This is exactly what CPPR wishes to find out under Reinventing Cochin project….the part played by the state and civil society

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Since the monsoon started, many parts of Kochi city is flooded. As usual, the blame game started; between the political parties, among the counsellors and between and among government agencies. Many say it is the failure of the Mayor and she, in turn, blames many other agencies. Both the parties are right and wrong in their arguments at the same time. It shows the lack of power and authority that a mayor and council should enjoy in a city metropolis. Does she enjoy the rights to hire and fire in order to make the system accountable? What we want is a Mayor of executive power and one who is directly elected to the post. When a Mayor is sidelined by DMRC or KMRL or Mobility Hub or PWD or KWA or KSEB, it is not going to do for the city development. The purpose and objective of the operations of these entities in the city limits should be under the direct control of the Mayor. The immediate trust of the citizens and the transparency of the state could be envisioned in a powerful Mayor and not with bureaucrats affiliated to a different system other than the corporation. The long-term success and sustenance of Smart City also depend on the reform in the local government administration giving more power and teeth to the Mayor. Unfortunately, the Smart City Mission initiated by GoI has also overlooked this aspect.

The World Environment Day

All the morning newspapers are brimmed with the Advt given by the Kerala government regarding the planting of 1 crore trees today. in fact, this is the continuation of the advertisement glitterati carried by the government fo the last few weeks. I was wondering how much they have spent for planting a tree. This has also got a past link where the governments of the day kept on the ritual of planting trees every year on World Environment days In the last ten years, they have planted millions of trees that would have converted the state into the wild forest. But nothing happened. I don't think the situation is going to be different this time. Instead, they should have used the money that they spent for advertisements and the local paraphernalia for buying acres of land together and fostering forest there. A focused attempt will help than a scattered one. Money could have also used to encourage the entrepreneurs to sustainable forestry projects.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Parking
has posed several predicaments that never cease to ease for the Government of
India. Government after government has tried to fix the problem using various
strategies –building more parking spaces, imposing congestion taxes, investing
in parking infrastructure etc. However, they fail because policies fails, as
the strategies are neither linked with the outcomes nor do they learn from market
models. This may also happen to Venkaiah Naidu, the Minister for Urban Development,
if his ministry’s proposal to show proof of parking while
buying a new vehicle[1] is implemented.
The intention is right and countries like Japan have tasted success. The
proposal is neither new to India as the states of Sikkim and Mizoram [2]have already
implemented it. The issue here is that the government still assumes ownership
and responsibility of providing parking. Citizens are still happy to ask (or
demand) for room space to fit their air conditioners. The government need to
understand the market system better, if itneeds to tackle (or disown) the
parking issue.

Experts
like Donald Shoup of the University of California (UCLA) and Paul Barter of the
National University of Singapore (NUS) stress the need to treat parking space
as a valuable space, which is killed by cars. Should we give free space for a
private car or should we use the space for, say, housing for the poor or generating state
revenue by leasing prime space or giving employment to a tea seller? The
question of priority and productive utilisation of space assumes significance
in this context. The National Urban Housing Policy mentions that 25 square metre
to 30 square metre of land space is required to provide housing for Economically
Weaker Sections (EWS) in India[3]. On
average, a car takes up 25 square-metre space.How do we justify the use of
public spaces for car parking? We have to free public spaces from car parking
and bring Uber-model innovations to tackle parking or traffic issues.

What to learn from Uber?

Uberisation
has become a synonym for effective utilisation with minimum cost. By connecting
cars/taxis with people through technology and utilising it, Uber-like systems
have brought a new dimension to the concept of space utilisation. This is
exactly what we need to learn from them. First, Uber has killed idle time. Cars
no longer need to stop dead, as trip volumes increased in relation to decrease
in waiting time. Long-term parking is equal to unproductive utilisation of
space. Uber-like systems have reduced the need for parking. Something that
cities like New Jersey[4] and Colorado
adopted when they decided to subsidise Uber than invest in building parking
infrastructure. The ‘roundabout time’, a critical issue of cars hovering around
in cities to find parking space, will be an issue of the past, if technology could
be integrated to identify vacant parking lots. Google Maps help Uber track its customers
and ideally, cars should find the vacant spots.

Second,
Uber revolutionalised the concept of ride sharing through pooling and
incentivising people to share. Majority of the parking spaces are left vacant
at some part of the day, which could have been better utilised. Why not ‘legally’convert
a parking space for food vending at night? Shared economy benefits have been
considered as the future and so need to be seriously considered.

Third, demand
pricing for parking is favoured by experts like Paul Barter, as it makes people
realise the value of peak time.Recently, the Central Government proposed to
limit surge pricing, and the debate is still on whether it is the right strategy.
Parking prices in the form of fees should reflect the realities and the real
estate value of the land. Dynamic pricing is a good market proposition working
well for innovations and private players. Let cars pay more for parking on
prime land at peak time.This will influence people’s decision to use cars and
benefit increased usage of public transport.

Fourth,
customising for local conditions has been a hallmark of Uber and hence it was
able to adapt better in new areas. There is no concept of a universal parking fee
or a universal solution for parking issues. The local conditions influence
strategies and hence proof of parking should be a choice for local governments
to implement based on studies and findings.

Uber-like
systems incentivised people to leave their private cars and use taxis for
riding to office or market. Governments have started to realise their
importance, as the burden to provide parking has been relieved. Yet, the question of congestion remains unanswered and needs further assessment.
However, it has helped us understand the benefits of market on public issues
like mobility and transport.

Finally,
Uber has helped us realise the power of technology and this is exactly what parking
management systems require. Technology is currently confined to automation of
multilayer parking and needs space for innovation. Parking spaces are still
boring and cars are dead items when parked. Smart solutions require effective
utilisation of space and meeting the requirements of the passengers. We are
still waiting for that innovation, which can only happen through a right
parking policy strategy that encourages innovation and limits government
intervention. Maybe, the next Uberisation could be in parking!

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Madhu S is Director (Research & Projects ) at CPPR. Views expressed by the author is personal and does not reflect that of CPPR.